Why It’s Important to Battle Child Custody in the Right State In order to change a custody and visitation order, a California family law judge must have subject matter jurisdiction over the children involved. Otherwise, whatever orders are made will be null and void. That was the verdict from the California Court of Appeal in…

TRO Violations Lead to Possible Permanent Domestic Violence Restraining Order If a California judge grants a temporary restraining order and then, before the hearing, the restrained person makes what the judge considers “technical violations” of the order, is that enough to grant a permanent restraining order at the next hearing? The answer is yes, according…

Mom is going to Have to Pay Child Support to Grandma! Is there anything stranger than someone being ordered to pay child support to her mother-in-law? That’s what happened today when the California Court of Appeal reversed a trial court’s decision to deny child support to an ex-husband’s mother by his ex-wife, even though the…

California Justices Say Man can talk about his Divorce on Facebook Are you allowed to talk about your California divorce case on social media? After a published case from the Court of Appeal, the answer apparently is yes unless the judge restricts you from talking on social media about the divorce to your own children…

Court Decides When Spousal Support (Alimony) Ends in California When does spousal support end in California? Well, as they say in the legal industry, it depends. Normally, one way that it ends is if the person who is receiving the support remarries. But in settling a divorce case, the parties may agree that the remarriage…

Dead Judges Can’t Make Orders You would think this is obvious, but the United States Supreme Court has ruled that a judge’s decision made before a case is decided does not count if the judge dies before the decision is actually released to the public. The case, Vovino v. Rizo, involved the late Stephen Reinhardt,…

California Wife Thought Property Was Hers; Court Thought Differently Most California family law attorneys will tell you that in the Golden State, property acquired during marriage by one of the spouses while the parties are living in California, is considered community property. Assuming that this is true (and mostly it is), there is a way…

California Woman Files in Wrong Court and Has to Pay $90,000.00 in Family Law Case Sometimes people have to go back to court when their divorce case is over. When this occurs, they need to go back to the court which decided the divorce — not some other court, or some other courthouse. A California…

Does Your English Count? Does your ability to speak English affect your right to child custody or visitation. No, says the California Court of Appeal in a recent San Diego family law case. In this case, entitled S.Y. v. Superior Court, the appeals court ruled 3-0 that the trial judge was wrong to rely on…

A Possibly Easier Way to get the Other Side to pay for Attorney Fees Family Code section 2030 requires judges to make sure each party in a divorce case has equal access to legal representation. Usually, section 2030 fees will be awarded if, among other things, there is a significant disparity between the income of…